Central Route - Day 1 - Ontario, CA to Williams, AZ

It was a great day, sunny, warm weather and no rain.
All 3 routes meet in the Convention center parking lot. This is truly an organized chaos. The people holding the numbers are the stagers…this is how it gets organized.

Check out all the bikes

Breakfast was cooked on what looks like Coleman stoves. They were have a good ole time.

Here is Dan aka Papi. He is the Central route photographer. He always keeps us laughing

…. and is a great photographer

This is Eamon and Terri Tansey. Eamon served in the Australian army during Vietnam War. He is out route coordinator.

Tom Miller is the Assistant Route Coordinator (ARC) with his with Jan. Tom has been the road guard captain for at let 3 years. Maybe more. He always has a great smile!!

Larry (Leadership Support) and Jean Gault (Sit Rep Reporter)

At the start of every day is morning pray and the Pledge. Today is no exception, except for they way the colors are presented…..

Pretty Cool!!!!!

Singing of the Star Spangle Banner and the 2 girls sign it also.

This women was introduced and a POW mom, The gentleman in the green is the brother of the POW.

Ok Saddle up!!!!! All routes will leave at the same time, then split down the road.

We are rolling out. The parking lot is getting empty.

Here are a few examples of the bike with trailer just to give you an idea.

Roger , aka Pops, will be carrying the Mayor of Loveland CO cross country. Funny thing is, I live in Loveland , OH

The flag is flying as we exit the parking lot. Safe travels, I will be watching over you.

First bridge as we leave the parking lot. What a way to start the day!!!

Little foggy….. that is an understatement…

Yeah finally starting to see blue sky. FYI for those that have followed my blog before, you will notice I love to take lots of pics of this beautiful country. I realize many people cannot make a trip like this so I want to show off our country. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Amazing. The patriotism.

First gas stop. The first day on gas stops are always hectic. There are lots of FNGs and this makes the task interesting.
Here is how it works. The pumps are turned on and not shut off until everyone is fueled. We round up and no one gets change. If your bill is $7.50, you owe $8. If you happened to give a ten, you just donated to the chase vehicles fuel bill… thanks

I am going to try timing one tomorrow but normally we can fuel 400 bikes in 20-25 minute.
Never ceases to amaze me!!!

“Heroic Road Guard Save Pack from Gator”

Kirk is one of our many road guards. One of the tasks is to try and clear any large debris before the pack comes thru. Today, the Gator, (that is a retread tire) was in the line of the bikes. He was able to get a break in traffic and retrieve it off the road…. however as he was throwing it to the side, he lands and slides head first on the side. Anyone have a pic of this…. I would love to post it.

Kirk “Pretty Boy” Olson and Ken ” Catfish” Ward are on the board for RFTW and are our road guards. THANKS guys for all you do. Hope your arm feels better Kirk.

Did you ever sit at a railroad crossing and count the number of cars of a train? Well I have. Out here you can see the whole train and these 2 had about 80.

This is “Walrus”. He is standing at every exit the pack needs to take. You surely cannot miss him.

Nice surprise by our Outreach and Ambassador teams.

Here is the staging team before anyone gets in the lot. They have to know how many bikes are in each platoon and then get enough space for them to fit in a lot. Way before all this, someone has to scout out locations to be able to handle 400 bikes in a lot. Thanks Steve!! This is all done way in advance. Every year you need check with EVERY stop made. Today we had 5, now multiply this by 10 day. That a LOT of planning

Look where leadership ended up. You have to improvise. And share the lot when necessary.

Hydration team Thanks!! We are heading into the desert…. so everyone hydrate.

This is Barry and Devine. They assign the new riders to platoons. This can be a tricky job since you want to balance them out. Also people come and go on the Run the platoon get bigger and smaller. Some can only make it a few day and it could be at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the run. Devine also helps with the Registration duties.

Day is looking good but still a little hazy. BEAUTIFUL!! Pics just do not show the full picture.

This is Wild Bill another one of our road guards and a Vietnam vet. Before we left Ontario, the Run is always trying to raise money. Someone donated 2 cows to be auctioned off. Bill got one of them. Bill did you get T-bone or Sirloin? This is a little cow mascot he has on the back.

What a great reception heading into Needles, CA for Lunch.

Rick is another one of your veteran road guards. I will show lots of these pics. It captures the respect that the Run has.

Wow only our 3 gas stop and you guys look like pros. Way to go Fuel team

Bud is the CA state coordinator. Each state has one. They have a big job. All the gas, lunch , dinner….stops need to be organized. The state coordinators do this to make he Run go smooth. I will not hold it against you Bud that you are a Pittsburg fan. (He was born and raised there, then move to CA).

Here is one of the table clothes in Needles. Kids do a great job

Now a few more of the leadership team. Bernadette is the 50-50 person , Cookie is part of registration, and Dabo…. he is not leadership.. he is a road guard.

Lance is our raffle rouser…. Dadbo, photo bombed us again.

People of Needles are always working hard to give us a great lunch.

And today we got ice cream. It was 101 in the shade today and this was sooo good. The gentleman in the center of the pic is a Vietnam vet. Several thanked him for his service. Remember, is only takes a few seconds to thanks them!!!